This invention relates generally to the food service industry and more particularly to a food serving bar for maintaining food at a suitable temperature prior to service to consumers.
This invention is generally in the same field as U.S. Pat. No. 6,735,971, assigned to Duke Manufacturing Company and incorporated herein by reference, which discloses a temperature controlled food serving bar for heating or cooling food products held in food-holding pans in the food serving bar.
The present invention is more specifically directed to a food serving bar that maintains hot food at a proper temperature before serving. Such a food serving bar is often used in, for example, the fast food service industry to maintain separate ingredients (e.g., meat, cheese, rice, beans, etc.) at elevated temperatures prior to assembly of a hot finished food product (e.g., taco, burrito, etc.).
One hot food serving bar frequently used in the fast food service industry, commonly referred to as a steam table or bain-marie, comprises placing rows of food-holding pans in or above a bath of heated water to maintain food held in the food-holding pans at an elevated temperature. This existing design is relatively inefficient in that the entire heated bath of water must be maintained at an elevated temperature which requires a large amount of power to heat the water which, in turn, is used to heat the food-holding pans. Also, steam tables result in increased humidity and temperature of the operating environment surrounding the table as a result of the steam generated by heating the water bath. The increased heat and humidity in the surrounding environment increases cooling demands on the HVAC system of a restaurant. Also, the increased humidity of the surrounding environment requires additional cleaning and maintenance as a result of steam condensing on other equipment adjacent the steam table. Further, food held in steam tables is easily spilled into the hot water bath requiring frequent clean up. Also, the holding well for the water bath must be drained and cleaned on a frequent (e.g., daily) basis to maintain sanitary operating conditions of the steam table. Moreover, existing hot food serving bars do not allow independent temperature control of rows of food-holding pans or independent temperature control of individual food-holding pans in the food serving bar.
Therefore, a need exists for a food serving bar that effectively and efficiently holds food products, especially heated food products for preparation of a finished food product.